Eric Williams (prime minister)

• Education: Queen’s Royal College (Trinidad and Tobago); St. Catherine’s Society (later St. Catherine’s College), University of Oxford (Oxford, England)
• Significance: Eric Williams fought against colonialism during the mid-twentieth century and rallied for his country’s independence from Great Britain’s colonial empire. In 1962, he became the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Background

Eric Eustace Williams was born on September 25, 1911, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, a nation that consists of two islands located off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. At the time of Williams’s birth, the British Empire ruled over Trinidad and Tobago. Williams’s parents were Elisa Williams, whose family was of French Creole ancestry, and Henry Williams, who was a civil servant.

Williams graduated from the Queen’s Royal College, a secondary school in Port of Spain. He received Trinidad’s Island Scholarship and traveled to Oxford, England, to attend college. Williams graduated from the University of Oxford with a doctorate in history in 1938. The following year, he accepted an assistant professorship at Howard University in Washington, DC. During his teaching career, Williams began writing about matters affecting his nation and served as a consultant to the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission. His contract was not renewed in 1955, which prompted him to break ties with colonial authorities and participate in the nation’s politics. In 1956, Williams founded the People’s National Movement, or PNM, which was the nation’s first modern political party. In September 1956, he was elected Trinidad and Tobago’s chief minister.

Political Career

Williams’s politics were greatly influenced by what he experienced while serving on for the Caribbean Commission. The commission’s support for traditional neo-colonialism, a sociological and political process that kept Caribbean territories economically dependent on imperial powers, concerned him. He believed that the Caribbean islands that existed under British rule should join with one another to maintain their economic health. With the help of the PNM, Williams was elected to serve as premier of the country in 1959. He served in that office until 1962, when Trinidad and Tobago peacefully separated from Great Britain and gained its independence. In 1962, Williams became the first prime minister of the newly independent nation.

As prime minister, Williams created a government based on pragmatic nationalist and state-led capitalist ideals. He focused on social services, such as health care and welfare; education funding; and economic development. Trinidad and Tobago’s position as a top exporter of oil and sugar helped fuel the nation’s economy. In 1958, the British government formed the Federation of the West Indies as an effort to integrate other nations in the West Indies, but the federation collapsed by 1962 because of political disagreements among other Caribbean colonies. However, his country’s own wealth allowed him to give aid to nearby impoverished countries in the Caribbean when needed.

Despite Trinidad and Tobago’s affluence, international events of the late 1960s affected Williams’s people. In 1970, he was forced to quell an ongoing uprising of the Black Power movement by declaring a State of Emergency after a protester was killed by the national police force. This was one of the most severe of several major challenges he dealt with during his prime ministry. His political career continued until his death on March 29, 1981.

Scholarship

Williams focused his academic endeavors on history and politics, particularly as they pertained to victims of the African slave trade and race relations. He is known for his autobiography, Inward Hunger: The Education of a Prime Minister. In this book, Williams described his experience with racism as a student in Great Britain and how that experience shaped his view of the world and his experience as prime minister.

Before Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from Great Britain, Williams published several works arguing against British rule. In Capitalism and Slavery, Williams contended that the rise of industrial capitalism made the slave system unprofitable, which caused Great Britain to abolish enslavement around its colonies. This was contrary to the British establishment’s mainstream position that abolishing enslavement was the right thing to do.

Williams also wrote many journal articles. These pieces typically focused on the history and politics of Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean nations. He covered topics such as slavery, race relations, and education. After the PNM formed, Williams founded the party’s own publishing company. PNM Publishing produced official party documents for the PNM. In addition, Williams published his academic dissertations, lectures, and historical perspectives. In 1998, the University of the West Indies initiated the Eric Williams Memorial Collection, a compendium of the prime minister’s writings and speeches.

Impact

Williams’s education and knowledge of political science helped him lead a Caribbean colony forward toward self-sufficiency after establishing independence from one of the largest kingdoms in the world during that time. Williams’s prolific teachings about race relations in the Caribbean shaped his country’s identity as a wealthy democratic operating on a state-led capitalist framework nation. His drive to make Trinidad and Tobago an independent nation earned him the title “Father of the Nation.”

In 2024, Howard University held a symposium celebrating the eightieth anniversary of the publication of Williams’s book Capitalism and Slavery. Williams was a professor at Howard University when he wrote the book, which shows a link between the transatlantic slave trade and the rise of capitalism.

Personal Life

Williams married his third wife, Mayleen Mook Sang in 1957, and they remained legally married but estranged until his death in 1981. From his previous marriages, Williams had two daughters, Pamela and Erica, and a son, Alastair.

Bibliography

Blankson, Perry. “Remembering Trinidad and Tobago’s Black Power Revolution.” Tribunemag.co.uk, 26 Feb. 2023, tribunemag.co.uk/2023/02/trinidad-and-tobago-black-power-revolution-1970. Accessed 30 May 2026.

“Eric Williams.” TrinbagoPan, trinbagopan.com/Ericwilliams.html. Accessed 30 May 2026.

Fraser, C. Gerald. “Eric Williams, Leader of Trinidad and Tobago, Is Dead.” The New York Times, 31 Mar. 1981, www.nytimes.com/1981/03/31/obituaries/eric-williamsleader-of-trinidad-and-tobago-is-dead.html. Accessed 30 May 2026.

Herzfeld, Michael. “The Absent Presence: Discourses of Crypto-Colonialism.” South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 101, no. 4, 2002, pp. 899–926, saq.dukejournals.org/content/101/4/899.citation. Accessed 30 May 2026.

“Symposium on Eric Williams’ ‘Capitalism and Slavery’ to Be Held in Cuba and Washington, DC.” The Dig, Howard University, 19 Sept. 2024, thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/symposium-eric-williams-capitalism-and-slavery-be-held-cuba-and-washington-dc. Accessed 30 May 2026.

Williams, Eric. Inward Hunger: The Education of a Prime Minister. Deutsche, 1969.